Re: [dita] Behavior for xref format="ditamap"

[Eliot Kimber <ekimber@reallysi.com>]

On 12/3/11 8:30 PM, "Don Day (LbyW)" <donday@learningbywrote.com> wrote:

>    I found in one of my transforms a template for handling the syntactically
> valid case of <xref href="some.ditamap" format="ditamap"/>. Is the processing
> expectation for this combo defined anywhere? The 1.2 spec (3.4.2.9) defines
> the format="ditamap" semantic solely in terms of topicref context, not
> covering the xref case. Therefore this instance seems to be indeterminate. A
> working solution might point to a first topic in the subject map, but if a
> working result is not expected, implementers just need to know that it is
> indeterminate.
>  

I think the behavior must depend on the value of @scope.

If @scope is local, the behavior is either indeterminate or the first
topicref descendant of the referenced map.

If @scope is peer or external, then I think it has to function as a
cross-reference to a separate publication (root map), whatever that means
(remembering that we're still trying to define the syntax and semantics for
cross-publication links and addresses in DITA 1.3).

Through DITA 1.2 DITA has no well-defined semantic for doing
cross-publication addressing--addressing a map with scope != local is the
closest we have, the but rendition and behavior implications are entirely
unstated as far as I know.

Cheers,

E.
-- 
Eliot Kimber
Senior Solutions Architect
"Bringing Strategy, Content, and Technology Together"
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